Tour Staff Manages Only One "Stanford" Mention In Release, GWAA Award Seems Inevitable
/There should be an award for craftiest press release given out by the Golf Writers. Oh wait, that's the Daily Column category.
Read MoreIn golf construction art and utility meet; both are absolutely vital; one is utterly ruined without the other. GEORGE THOMAS
It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
The Amazon purchase page for the book arriving June 15, 2026.
The J.W. Marriott At The Greenbrier?
/Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue,
Read MoreNote To Golf Channel: Secure Us Some Australian Masters Coverage
/Now that Tiger is playing the Australian Masters, could we get some coverage so that we can watch Kingston Heath (and Tiger)?
Read MoreAnnika's Inevitable Return Delayed By Pregnancy
/She posts the news on her website...for those of you who bet "under" the 2010 Nabisco for her comeback, pay up.
"I've done this before"
/Doug Ferguson takes an enjoyable look at caddies and the things they hate hearing their player say, quoting Jim "Bones" MacKay extensively.
The story also
"They get advertising across the platform, and on that platform, they are reaching the strongest fan base mix from an indexing standpoint in certain segments of the marketplace that are difficult to reach..."
/The Commish popped in the Transitions press room Wednesday and was asked some pretty good questions in between the really timely ones about his AT&T National Pro-Am appearance.
Read MoreS.F. Golf Alliance And Sharp Park
/
Yesterday I posted the item on Sharp Park's possible fate. Some of you emailed wanting to know more about the battle. There's this website page devoted to the course and it will also bring you to the alliance's site.
"But if that's all he lost over there last year, that's terrific."
/I've made a decision to not track all of the course closings and fire sales, but I couldn't help notice this Bill Wilson story on the re-opening of Nick Faldo's much-hyped Cottonwood Hills
Read MoreTY Buys Plantation Course
/I knew they were paying the PGA Tour execs a lot but...what? Oh, not that Ty? Sorry. Well Googling this "TY Management, Inc." and reading Randi Petrello's story on the sale of the Kapalua Plantation Course
Read More"Sharp Park Golf Course on the chopping block?"
/Thanks to reader Joe B. for this Marisa Lagos update on the possible future of Alister MacKenzie's Sharp Park. Doesn't sound so good.
"Part of you says, 'Make it as good as it can be.'"
/So let's see. Tim Finchem plays in the AT&T National Pro-Am and magically they are discussing a field reduction to help with the wretched pace of play.
Read MoreCaptain Monty Open To Having Lunch With People He Never Would Have Dined With Before
/Mike Aitken reports on just how desperate European Captain Colin Montgomerie is to win.
"I feel in the past that there has been only a select few told things on a need-to-know basis but I want this to be an open campaign," he explained. "I will do it through e-mails to the players and talk to them in players' lounges. At lunch, maybe I'll sit at tables I wouldn't otherwise have sat at and say 'listen lads, this is what's happening'.
Lunching with the little people he never would have wasted his time with. Now that is determination!
H-O-R-S-E Golf
/My Golfdom column for February is up and while it may seem like a plug for The Prairie Club's Horse Course, it's actually a plea for more H-O-R-S-E type match play. Let me know what you think.
"In the American golf imagination, the nine-holer is maligned as a Velcro-patched pitch 'n' putt, the lesser-dressed cousin of miniature golf."
/
I loved Tom Coyne's SI Golf Plus My Shot piece on Irish golf and the beauty of the 9-hole round. He nails it. If there was some way we could de-stigmatize the 9-hole round, I'd sure love to hear it. (I still say a match play event with 9-hole matches in pool play would help.)
As for Coyne's book, I just received it and haven't had a chance to look at it yet. But freelancer and avid book reader Tom Mackin says this about it and John Garrity's latest:
If you're not going to Ireland soon -- despite one Euro being worth $1.30 American, the best rate in a long while -- two new books will get you there in spirit. Tom Coyne's "A Course Called Ireland" (Gotham Books) chronicles his walk -- yes, walk -- around the entire island while playing almost 60 links courses. John Garrity investigates his own Irish heritage, at a more leisurely pace, in "Ancestral Links" (New American Library). Two different perspectives on the game and the country with a shared favorite: Carne Golf Links in County Mayo.
